East London architecture collective wins Turner Prize

The East London architecture collective that is designing the new art gallery at Goldsmiths, University of London, has won the prestigious Turner Prize.

Assemble, a team of 18 young architects and designers based in Stratford, has set a precedent as the first collective and group of “non-artists” to win the £25,000 award.

Granby Workshop by Assemble Pic: Assemble

Assemble’s winning Granby Four Streets project in Liverpool was a collaboration with residents to clean up the neighbourhood, improve housing and create a new local marketplace.

Re-imaging existing spaces is a recurring theme in the group’s work, much of which has been done in Eastlondonlines’ boroughs.

In 2011, Assemble created Folly for a Flyover, a canal-side cinema under part of the A12 flyover in Hackney. They then used the demolition rubble from the project to make OTOProjects, a workshop and performance space for the experimental music venue Café OTO in Dalston, Hackney.

Goldsmiths art gallery Pic: Assemble

Assemble won a nationwide competition to design a new art gallery at Goldsmiths, University of London in Lewisham in 2014. The design incorporates and expands on the black steel water tanks of the historic Laurie Grove baths. The gallery is due to open next year and will show exhibitions, projects and residencies by leading artists and curators from the UK and abroad.

Professor Richard Noble, Head of the Department of Art at Goldsmiths, said: “Goldsmiths are delighted that Assemble have won the Turner Prize. This is a wonderful achievement, and testifies to the astonishing influence they’ve achieved in their short history as a collective.”

Goldsmiths art gallery Pic: Assemble

Two of the other artists that were shortlisted, Bonnie Camplin and Janice Kerbel, are Goldsmiths alumni, and join a long list of Turner Prize alumni associated with the university.

Seven Turner Prize winners and nearly a quarter of previously shortlisted artists have been either Goldsmiths alumni or staff.